stories from the hunger project

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    Ending Hunger

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    India: Indira Patni

    Indira Patni, 35 years old, became the president of her village council

    the very first time she participated in elections (the village council is

    made up of around 110 households). Her main agenda is to empower

    the women in her village and make them aware of things they need

    to do make their households and the village better. Her plan is to go

    from door to door and mobilize these women to start participating inthe village community meetings. Alcoholism and tree cutting are two

    other issues she wants to address as part of her long-term plans. In

    addition, old-age pensions and remuneration to the handicapped are

    not appropriately handled, and she wants to ensure that the eligible

    individuals receive this support from government.

    The biggest difference in her life since she started to improve her leadership is that she does not

    have to depend on anyone else. She finds her own way and is empowered enough to follow it. Hervision for her village is that all children will have a chance to be educated. At present, the drop-out

    rate is high. In the future, Indira envisions fighting for elections at the block and district level.

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    Bangladesh: Azad

    Azad is an animator* from one of the village communities in

    Bangladesh. He took the Animators training and envisoned a

    village community where everyone would lead a self-sufficient

    life.

    Through his initiative Azad and his family are proud owners of 3fish ponds, a small fruit orchard, a vegetable garden, poultry

    hatchery, 5 cows, and one goat. At the lunch hosted by him in our

    honor, everything he served was produced on his farm. He has

    recently planted palm trees, so that they can begin making their

    own palm oil for cooking. As if this wasn't enough, he also owns a

    small shop in the village market. When asked what motivated

    him, Azad said, "It was The Hunger Project's animator training

    which gave me the power to envision a better future not only formyself, but for my whole community."

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    Bangladesh: Roksana Parvin

    Animator Roksana Parvin (Dipu) has started a business teaching various

    classes to members of her community. She teaches a different class each day of

    the week: beauty salon; cooking, vegetable art, painting, embroidery and

    tailoring.

    Her students range in age from 20-60. The classes that Dipu runs are

    government approved, and are a source of income for her, where her studentspay a fee to take the classes, thus supporting her and her year-old baby.

    Her husband abandoned her when she spoke up against his

    abuse, and has since married another woman. Dipu derives her

    strength from the VCA and Animators Training she took a few

    years ago.

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    Uganda: Mr. & Mrs. Mugerwa

    Mr. and Mrs. Mugerwa of the Namayumba Epicenter have been partners with The

    Hunger Project (THP)-Uganda since 2004. Both have taken full advantage of

    numerous Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops (VCAWs) and continue to

    learn new and innovative ways of conducting business, generating income and

    empowering their family and community. As a result, they are thriving, empowered

    and inspiring Hunger Project partners.

    Their numerous successes have enabled the Mugerwas to build apermanent house, complete with solar panels for energy conservation, to

    send their children to school full-time and to begin plans to expand their

    shop and dairy farm. Mrs. Mugerwa plans to send all of the children to

    university with their ever-increasing savings. "My husband and I are change

    agents empowering people to end their own hunger and poverty," she said.

    Among their many VCAW-inspired projects, the Mugerwas have innovatedand continue to maintain a dairy farm, a granary, a piggery, an underground

    well for their home, a banana plantation and a trading shop that serves

    several of the surrounding villages. Their now-thriving dairy farm houses

    thirty heifers producing an average of 20 liters of milk each. With each liter

    fetching an average of UGX 500 (US$0.21), the dairy income is allocated to

    the operational costs of maintaining the farm and home costs.

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    Mexico: Las Esperanzas

    Las Esperanzas, The Hope, is an all-women income-generating project, which is

    financed though The Hunger Project (THP)-Mexico's partnership with Mexico's

    Social Development Ministrys Local Development Agency program. The eight

    women (ages 25-65) of Las Esperanzas live in an isolated community in Zacatecas,

    northern Mexico, where only 10 percent of women are involved in income-

    generating activities. Traditionally women in this region have no income and

    depend on the few dollars sent by their husbands working in the United States.

    For their peers in the community, these women are an example of perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit and

    are encouraging other women and men to consider the possibility of creating their own visions and projects.

    With the help of THP-Mexico, these women created a vision for

    their community, one in which they could lead a good life with

    their families, and one in which their children would not have to

    migrate North. They realized that in order to achieve this they

    would need enough income to be self-sufficient. Following

    several conversations, the local assembly granted Las Esperanzas

    a piece of land for their proposed chicken farm.

    After 12 months of facing many obstacles, including getting the

    land, financing the equipment and supplies, and undergoing skills

    training, they are producing 1,000 eggs daily and grossing $1,000

    pesos (USD $77.00) every day in sales.